Daily Republican., 1887-06-22
A Day In the siums Of Ph,Iade,ph,.


oorrespondence Of the Republican.
Your correspondent while ponder
ing over various subjects of natural
worth and import thought Of the
above while walking through the
slums OF Philadelphia. The locality
abounds in dissipation and crime. It's
a true saying THAT one-half the world
don't know what the other halt is
doing" TO more fully portray the
sins and vice of this vicinity we must
go through South street to Gillis
alley, a small, narrow thoroughfare
running through to Lombard street.
!n this alley you will find Germans.
Jews, Cinnamon and colored people:
sitting, drinking and swearing, some of
whom are only half clad. There are
tin kettles, bottles and numerous other
vessels filled with rum and beer car
ried by children of tenders age to
mothers, fathers or sisters, who,
through habit, spend their last cent
and neglect their homes.
The ''paItrol wagon" is heard com.
ing; on the corner of this alley q wo-
man has been thrown from a neigh
boring rum shop into the street. The
police have taken her in charge. They
pick her up bodily and with q one, two
and three, she is literally fired into
the wagon and sent to the station
house. Tho blood is running from a
wound in her head, down her face.
She's calling the officers all sorts Of
proiane names. Shes young and was
once chaste and virtuous maiden the
daughter OF an Ohio Judge, but has
gone astray, and was led to this city
by an evil associate, a girl, q compan-
ion, also of good christian parents of
the same place,
They had gone to school together
and were OF fine and accomplished
manners before their downfall and dis
grace. They were taught music and
both could play the piano. and be or.
namenls in the best society of Ohio.
My pen could not describe, through
the intervention of words, the hideous
sights of this place. 1t seems to be
the cesspool of proiligate humanity,
the abode of the drunkard, the thief,
and the beggar They resort to ali
sorts of tricks to get money for drink,
and deceive many of the charitably
pedestrians out OF one, and
two cents to buy bread or meal and
go and purchase wbiskey or beer.
They can get for five cents almost q
bottle full of poison, mixed with some-
thing called whiskcy. These people
can be seen stretched on barrels in the
low grog shops, sleeping off their po-
tations in the places they spent their
money. They can also be found on
Seventh street and Middle alley, all
huddled up-men and women-on
benches in the back room, conversing
or sleeping, and awaiting the chances
of drink. The proprietor OF this
saloon has made fortune out of these
detestable beings. and owns several
houses in the city and is quite an in.
fluential man in politics. will now
carry the reader to st. Mary street,
the most notorious locality in the
slnms, where there has been many
mysterious murders and robberies com
mitted. On both sides of the street
can be seen old tumble down houses,
and occupied principally by colored
people-ten and twelve in a room
sleeping on the floor, stoops or cellar
doors, and especially in the warm
weather There are more arrests in
that street for assault and attempt to
kill than any other street. in the vi
cinity. 1t has been the scene of two
atro3lous murders-one on old man
and the other young woman. How
strange; and yet what lesson is to be
learned from the downfall of these
creatures.
There are men, women and child
rem lost to all decency and virtue.
Hopeless drunkards, unfit for decent
society; and the burden of kind and
considerate father and mother who, in
the days Of their modesty and tender
years, advised them and adjured them
TO do better. The half is only told in
this narrative. which is somewhat
cramned and shorn of its coloring-
these are naked facts and not fiction,
ot things actually seen and done-na-
ture depraved and susceptible of the
worst impulses OF vice. Character
gone, principle gone Of doing and
obeying the ordained law of right, of
justice and virtue in the daily wslks OF
lite. Men, women and children Grad
led in homes OF luxury, the out casts
OF better society in the slums of this
city.
In closing this picture of what rum
Will do, to the many readers of the
REPUBLIcAN: beware of your evil as
sociates, that indulge in the glass, and
the folly of loose pleasure in your own
beloved city.
Remember these people are from
various small towns and cities of the